Trading Places
Trading Places is a 1983 American comedy film directed by John Landis and written by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod. It stars Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, Denholm Elliott, and Jamie Lee Curtis. The film tells the story of an upper-class commodities broker (Aykroyd) and a poor street hustler (Murphy) whose lives cross when they are unwittingly made the subject of an elaborate bet to test how each man will perform when their life circumstances are swapped. Trading Places features Kristin Holby and Paul Gleason in supporting roles.
Plot
Brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke own a commodities brokerage firm, Duke & Duke Commodity Brokers, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Holding opposing views on the issue of nature versus nurture, they make a wager and agree to conduct an experiment—switching the lives of two people on opposite sides of the social hierarchy and observing the results. They witness an encounter between their managing director—the well-mannered and educated Louis WinthorpeIII, engaged to the Dukes' grandniece Penelope—and a poor street hustler named Billy Ray Valentine; Valentine is arrested at Winthorpe's insistence because of a suspected robbery attempt. The Dukes decide to use the two men for their experiment.
Cast
- Al Franken
- Alfred Drake
- Avon Long
- Barry Dennen
- Bill Cobbs
- Bo Diddley
- Dan Aykroyd
- Denholm Elliott
- Don Ameche
- Eddie Jones
- Eddie Murphy
- Frank Oz
- Giancarlo Esposito
- James Eckhouse
- Jamie Lee Curtis
- Jim Belushi
- John Bedford Lloyd
- Kelly Curtis
- Paul Gleason
- Philip Bosco
- Ralph Bellamy
- Robert Curtis Brown
- Robert Earl Jones
- Ron Taylor
- Tom Davis
- Tom Mardirosian
More details
| author | Timothy Harris |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | Philadelphia |
| director | John Landis |
| editor | Malcolm Campbell |
| events | Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice |
| genre | comedy |
| keywords | arrest attempted suicide bank account bankrupt bankruptcy buy christmas party commodity commodity market corner the market cornering the market drug dealer engage exonerate frame futures contract gorilla costume load margin call nature versus nurture new year new york city news broadcast open outcry orange juice pennsylvania short sell social hierarchy social stratification suspect trade trading floor turn united states department of agriculture |
| musicBy | Elmer Bernstein |
| nomination | Academy Award for Best Original Song Score |
| producer | Aaron Russo |
| publisher | Paramount Pictures |
| recordedAt | Philadelphia United States Virgin Islands |
| theme | economics satirical short |